April 15, 2011

"Let me tell you how much we have learned to hate you since the birth of your pink-skinned race. If the oceans of the world had the word hate written on every individual drop of water that forms that endless expanse, it would not equal one-billionth of the hate I alone feel for humans at this one single instant."

April 14, 2011

Wizards of the Coast just spat out a pretty decent article on terrain powers, here, a topic near and dear to my heart. I particularly like the guidelines set forth equating various conditions (dazed, blinded, etc.) with the action economy, modified by tier. That's definitely an area that I feel a lot of newer DM's are hesitant and inexperienced with. The only thing that comes to mind that I would have done differently would be to increase the suggested damage range. I feel like terrain powers work best when they're on the side of a little too powerful. You need a good carrot to get the typical risk-averse, closed-box-thinking player to use them. And if they're not using them, what's the point?

The author is a relative unknown, Mark Monack. He has a Wizard Community Blog called Unearthed Wrecana.

April 9, 2011

I just figured out how to make digital Dungeon Tile maps. Seriously, just now. Expect more posts with actually usable encounters/adventures in the near future. Here's what I slapped together for Room A of The Lost Crown of Tesh-Naga.

April 8, 2011

The duel to the death, the 1-on-1 fight, the showdown. These words describe a powerful scenario where a hero must confront and defeat his enemy. Dungeons & Dragons, however, is at its heart a group game, made with the idea of a tactical team of 5 in mind. Must we abandon this epic imagery? This satisfying closure between two rivals so that we can invite the whole team? No, we will split the goddamn party.

April 4, 2011

This is more an addendum to my last post than anything else. In it, I described one of the Terrain Powers I added to the final encounter in WotC's 4E Tomb of Horrors. There was an additional power I added in there, one that was put out in plain sight as soon as initiative was rolled, and made available to all. The heroes, unfortunately, heard the clatter of dice and forgot their senses. They thought that I had run out of tricks and traps.

They were wrong, and for their lack of cunning, they were punished as the vine-tentacled beast of the encounter smashed the ceiling above, raining razor sharp shards of multi-hued stained glass upon the soft flesh of the dungeoneers.